Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

by V.E. Schwab

not all sins were boulders, that most in fact were more like pebbles.

“Nature gives us what we need,”

“Careful. In nature, beauty is a warning. The pretty ones are often poisonous.”

she did not go to bed a girl and wake a woman, though some days it feels that way.

And if she is too long and lean, too wild to be considered comely, the strangeness of her hair has made her something even better. Striking.

She knows that she was born into this body. She knows it comes with certain rules.

it turns out there’s no magic threshold, no fresh start,

They speak of her as if she isn’t there, or worse, as if she is, and her presence doesn’t matter.